Filing or storage cabinets



Nov. 21, 1961 s. R. GlTTlNS FILING OR STORAGE CABINETS Filed Feb. 4,1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. 21, 1961 s. R. GITTINS 3,009,753

FILING OR STORAGE CABINETS Filed Feb. 4, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIGS FIGS

5 i I l i l I I I i I I 1 sides of the casing or cabinet.

of the door which is indicated at 13 in FIGURES 2, 3, 5,-

Clm'ms priority, application Great Britain Feb. 5, 1957 2 Claims. (Cl.312-47 9 This invention relates to cabinets or the like incorporatingone or more trays, drawers or the like for the storage of articles.

According to the invention a cabinet or the like will comprise a boxlike casing which is open at one side, at least one door adapted toclose the open side of said casing and so mounted as to be capable ofpivotal movement about a horizontal axis from a closed to an openposition and vice versa, and a tray, drawer or article supporting memberdirectly pivotally connected to said door in such a manner that as thelatter is swung about its pivot axis towards the open or closed positionsaid tray, draw or member will be drawn forwardly from or movedrearwardly into said cabinet, the arrangement being such however, thaton opening of the door the fore part of the tray will be causedinitially to move forwardly along an upwardly inclined path andsubsequently along a downwardly inclined path so that the force ofgravity will be illustrating the slightly modified arrangements forsupporting the rear part of the drawer or tray,

FIGURE 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3,

FIGURES 6 and 7 are diagrammatic part sectional side elevational andplan views respectively illustrating an alternative form of lockingmechanism.

Referring now to the drawings 16 denotes a box like casing or cabinetwhich is provided at one side with a door 11 capable of a hinge orpivotal movement about a transverse horizontal axis from a closedposition as shown in FIGURES 2, 3, 5 and 6 wherein it will lie in asubstantially vertical plane to a fully open position as shown in FIGURE1, wherein it will lie in a substantially horizontal plane andv'iceversa. At or adjacent its opposite ends the door is provided with a pairof rearwardly directed Wings or side portions 12 which extend in planesat right angles to the plane of the door and parallel to the The hingeor pivot axis 6 and 7 may be provided by means of two inwardly directedpins or stub shafts whichare fixedly mounted one on each of the sides ofthe casing or cabinet, such pins being axially aligned and adapted toengage in appropriate apertures or bushes formed in or. mounted on there-' spective wing portions 12. Alternatively the wing portions 12 maycarry a pair of axially aligned pins arranged to engage in bushes or'thelike mounted on or formed in the sides of said casing or cabinet.

Pivotally connected to the rearwardly directed wing portions 12 as bymeans of the axially aligned pins 14 is a tray 15. As will be clearlyseen from FIGURES 2, 3, 5 and 6 the axis of the pivotal connectionbetween the tray and the Wing portions 12 is situated above andrearwardly oi the pivot axis 13 of the door, so that as the and closingof the door.

' snsa'zss Patented Nov. 21, 1961 latter is swung downwardly about itspivot axis towards the open position the tray 15 will be drawnforwardly,

there being a slight lifting of the forward part of said tray theaforesaid pivot axes the force of gravity will be eifective to maintainthe door in both its closed and open positions irrespective of whetherthe tray is supporting a load or not.

In order to support the rear end of the tray a pair of links such as areindicated at 16 FIGURES 1 and 6 may be provided each such link beingpivotally connected at one end to the appropriate side wall of the tray15 and at the end to the adjacent side wall of the casing or cabinet. Inthe embodiment shown in FIGURE 1 springs indicated by 17 are provided toassist in the return movement of the links 16 and of the tray 15 intoits retracted position as the door is moved from the opened towards theclosed position. The provision of such springs is not really necessaryand they may be omitted altogether or alternatively they may beassociated with the wing portions 12.

In FIGURE 2 a slightly modified supporting link arrangement for the rearend of the tray is indicated at 18.

Instead of supporting the rear end of the tray by means of links such asindicated in FIGURES 1 or 2, it may be desirable to adopt a constructionsuch as is indicated in FIGURES 3 and 4. In this case one or eachsidewall of the tray is provided with an outwardlydirected pin 19adapted to engage in-a slot 20 formed in a plate 21 attached to the sidewall of the cabinet. Preferably as indicated the slot 20 will beinclined or shaped somewhat as shown so that the rear of the tray willfollow a path of movement related to that of the fore part on opening Itmay be mentioned here that instead of engaging in a slot such as 20 thepin 19 may be adapted to cooperate with and to ride onan appropriatelyshaped surface formed on a block or abutment suitably disposedinternally of the casing.

If desired one or both of the wing portions 12 of the door may asindicated in FIGURE 1 be provided with an outwardly directed lug or thelike 22 adapted to cooperate with appropriate abutment surfaces Withinthe casing or cabinet and to constitute stop means limiting the movementof the door in either direction.

Instead of the limiting stop means indicated in FIG- URE l-it may bedesirable to adopt a construction such as is indicated in FIGURE 5 whichalso provides means whereby the door; may be positively locked in itsclosed position. Referring now to FIGURE 5 it will be seen that one Wingportion 12 of the door has an outwardly directed arm 23 attached theretosuch arm carrying at its outer end a laterally directed lug orprojection 23a, 24 and 24a denote fixed abutmentsagainst which the lugor projection on the arm 23 is adapted to abut at the limits of openingand closing movement of the door. Cooperating with the lug or projection23a when the door is in its closed position is a latch plate 25 which ismounted for pivotal movement about a fixed pin 26 said latch plate beingalso pivotally connected asindicated at 27 to an axially movable rod orbar 23. It will be appreciated from FIGURE 5 that if the rod or bar 23is locked or held in the position shownthen the latch plate 25 will alsobe held in the position shown so that the door will be locked in itsclosed position. Upon release of the rod so that the door will then befree to be opened. If desired the rod or bar 28 may normally be urgedaxially into the position corresponding to the operative or lookingposition of the latch plate by means of a spring or the like and it willbe obvious that any one of numerous methods available may be adapted foreffecting locking of such rod or bar which will of course bemanipulatable from outside the casing or cabinet. With the constructionshown-in FIGURE 5 the lug or projection 23a will be effective to abutagainst the abutments 24 and 24a when the door reaches either its fullyclosed or fully open position thereby positively to limit the movementsof the door.

Instead of the construction indicated in FIGURE 5 it may be desirable toadopt one such as is illustrated in FIGURE 6 and referring now to thatfigure it will be seen that one of the wing portions 12 of the door isformed to incorporate a slot 29 and an arcuate edge portion 30. Mountedfor pivotal movement about a fixed pivot 31 is a latch element 32 havinga laterally directed projection 33 at the outer or free end thereofwhich is adapted when the door is in the closed position to engage inthe slot 29 in the aforesaid .wing portion 12. Cooperating with thelatch element 32 is an axially movable rod or the like 34 manipulatahlefrom outside the casing or cabinet the arrangement being such that onupward movement of said rod the latch element 32 will be lifted so thatthe projection 33 will be disengaged from the slot 29 whereafter thedoor may be opened said projection riding along the arcuate edge 30 ofthe wing portion 12. Upon closing movement of the door the projection 33will ride along the arcuate edge until it reaches the slot 29 whereuponit will drop into said slot and positively lock the door againstopening.

In the embodiment shown in FIGURE 1 a casing or cabinet incorporating asingle door and associated tray is shown. It will be appreciated howeverthat the casing or cabinet may incorporate a plurality of compartmentssuperimposed one on the other and/ or in side by side relation each suchcompartment being closed by a door and having a tray or the likeconnected to such door for movement therewith as above described. When aplurality of storage compartments is present one on the other it will beappreciated that where locking arrangements such as are indicated ineither FIGURE 5 or 6 are provided a single actuating rod or bar such as28 or 34 may be provided so that all the doors may be locked or unlockedsimultaneously. In the case where the storage compartments are arrangedin side by side relation a single actuating rod may be provided inrespect of each compartment or by a simple rearrangement of the latchelements a single rod might also be employed in such cases.-

A cabinet incorporating the features of the invention is eminentlysuitable for the storage or filing of papers, documents or the like.Alternatively such a cabinet may well be utilised for storing such itemsas microscope, photographic or other similar slides, gramophone recordsand the like or again it may be designed for domestic purposes as achest of drawers or other similar item of furniture.

Although reference has been made herein specifically to the provision ofa drawer or tray it is to be understood that in place of a drawer ortray such as is illustrated it may be desirable to provide any otherarticle supporting member or structure e.g. a frame structure adapted tosupport files or folders in the manner of a so-called suspension filingsystem. Such article supporting member or structure will of course bepivotally connected to the wings or side portions of the door in asimilar manner to that above described so that the force of gravity willbe effective to maintain the door in both its open and closed positionsirrespective of whether said structure is loaded or not.

I claim:

1. A storage cabinet comprising a box-like casing open at one side andincluding side walls adjacent the open side, at least one door forclosing the open side of said casing, a pair of rearwardly directed wingportions disposed'on said door and extending at right angles to the doorand also in parallel relation to said side walls of said casing, alignedpivotal connections between said wing portions and said side walls ofsaid casing to provide for pivotal movement of the door about asubstantially horizontal axis from a closed to an open position and viceversa, a tray slidable within said casing, axially aligned meansdirectly and pivotally connecting said tray at one end of the same tosaid wing portions, said means with said door closed being rearwardly ofand above said aligned pivotal connections so that as the door is movedtowards open position, said means follow an arcuate path about thepivotal connections to a position above and in front of the pivotalconnections, said one end of the tray rising and subsequently loweringso that the force of gravity will be effective to maintain the door inits open position, and means pivotally connecting said tray at the otherend thereof to said casing so that said other end lowers and rises incontrast to said'oue end to average out the movement of said one endwith respect to movement of said tray.

2. A storage cabinet comprising a box-like casing open at one side andincluding side walls adjacent said open side, at least one door forclosing the open side of said casing, a pair of rearwardly directed wingportions on said door and extending at right angles to the door and alsoin parallel relation to said side walls, aligned pivotal connectionsbetween said wing portions and said side walls of said casing to providefor pivotal movement of said door about a substantially horizontal axisfrom a closed to an open position and vice versa, a tray slidable withinsaid casing, aXailly-aligned means directly and pivotally connectingsaid tray to said wing portions, said means being positioned rearwardlyof and above said pivotal connections with said door closed, pivots onsaid side walls, pivots on said tray beneath and behind the first saidpivots with the door closed, said pivots being positioned rearwardly ofsaid means, and a pair of links pivotally connecting said pivots andthus the tray and the side walls of the casing and allowing forward andrear ward sliding movement of the tray, the said means following anarcuate path about said horizontal axis of the door so that the weightof the tray is effective to maintain the door in both its closed andopen positions. 4

References Cited in the file of this patent v UNITED STATES PATENTS1,006,983

